NBC Olympics selects Lawo VSM studio control system

Lawo commentary unit

Feb 08, 2018

NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected Lawo to
provide VSM (Virtual Studio Manager) Broadcast Control and Monitoring
solutions, as well as IP Commentary systems, for its production of the
XXIII Olympic Winter Games.

The announcement was made by Timothy Canary, Vice President of Engineering, NBC Sports Group, and Jeffrey Stroessner, Head of Sales, Lawo.

The VSM system to be used at NBC Olympics’ production facility at the International Broadcast Center in South Korea, will provide NBC with more flexibility and operation enhancements during its production of the Winter Games. VSM will be the overall control system for NBC Olympics’ core routing and tally management, connecting to multiple 3rd party devices on an IP backbone. NBC significantly increased the number of GUI-based VSM Panels which are accessed from various monitors and tablets provided throughout NBC Olympics’ various production facilities. VSM also provides remote Tally information between the IBC in South Korea and NBC Sports Group’s headquarters in Stamford, CT.

NBC Olympics will also deploy an enhanced Lawo audio-over-IP Commentary System along with several Lawo V__pro8 video processors to manage their coverage from Stamford. Lawo worked with NBC to develop an enhanced version of the LCU (Lawo Commentary Unit) to meet NBC’s production goals. The V__pro8s will receive video feeds from South Korea, de-embed the audio and then insert into RAVENNA and MADI Streams that will ultimately feed the Lawo LCU commentary system. New for this year’s production will be NBC’s use of the Commentary System at the IBC and remotely at the Ski Jump and Curling venues, forming a fully cohesive commentary workflow. Additionally, several Games venues in South Korea will be connected to the NBC Olympics compound within the International Broadcast Center, through Lawo’s V__remote4 units, which provide connectivity and processing for network audio and video signals delivered via IP-connections from the remote sites.

NBC Olympics previously worked with Lawo on its production of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“Lawo has worked closely with NBC Olympics to add new features and additional operational flexibly to the system, for our HD and 4K HDR programming,” said Canary. “The seamless integration of Lawo’s audio and video hardware was easily integrated into our existing systems, and provides NBC Sports with a complete end-to-end solution.”

"We are thrilled to once again have the opportunity to work with NBC Olympics, and utilize a range of Lawo products and software to create an innovative control and remote production solution," said Stroessner.